


Trying to Score a Kiss from Dragon Jesus

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Series: The Dragon Jesus Saga [3]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, I’d say slow burn but its a bit quicker, M/M, Medium Burn, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21897433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: Kiriya attempts to set up some holiday kisses with Graphite but the rest of the CR crew unintentionally interferes because of course they do.
Relationships: Graphite/Kujou Kiriya, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Saiba Nico/Poppy Pipopapo, past aihara jungo/kujou kiriya
Series: The Dragon Jesus Saga [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601899
Comments: 18
Kudos: 7
Collections: Kiriphite (Kiriya Kujou/Graphite) Fics





	1. The Christmas Stick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parad misinterprets certain Christmas traditions, leading to a large problem in Kiriya's plan to kiss Graphite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was inspired by a post on tumblr or twitter that I can't find anymore, but it said something to the effect of: I have an idea called the Christmas Stick. Instead of mistletoe, you hang up a stick and if people meet under it they have to fight.
> 
> Very minimal editing throughout the whole fic.

It was Graphite's second birthday, a.k.a. Christmas Eve and Kiriya was determined to kiss him. Unusually for him, he only had a semblance of a plan, making him worry about even reaching the first step to his goal. The most he came up with was pulling Graphite aside somehow during the CR Christmas party. Everyone would be accounted for, and Kiriya could easily keep track of them and make sure they'd all be sufficiently distracted with each other so they wouldn't interrupt the quick moment he needed. Around that, there were too many factors to take into account. On one hand, of the four CR doctors, Kiriya was the one Graphite had gotten the most comfortable with, so it couldn't be too hard to make an excuse he'd go along with to get them alone. Anything should do, even asking if Graphite just wanted to step away from all the chaos for a bit.

On the other, he'd grown too comfortable and grown something of a huge, embarrassing, 'close friend so I don't wanna ruin what we have' style crush on Graphite, making it harder for him to psych himself up and go with his plan of bringing him under the mistletoe and giving Graphite a little smooch. It was the least intimidating thing and he should be able to do it without holiday traditions as an excuse. Graphite would probably appreciate the clear intent more, but his hands felt icy cold and he kept trembling when he thought of going through with it. Figuring there wasn't much he could do to prepare for the situation, Kiriya decided to bite the bullet and jump into the party, improvising where he could to get this done and over with. Maybe by the end of the day, he'd have a boyfriend, and in the worst possible case scenario, he just destroyed a friendship he spent a whole lot of effort building up, no big deal, happened all the time. Was probably better that way. 

After wrapping up his work for the day at Genm, which was getting full of reconstructed bugsters and patients thanks to his and Poppy's hard work, he wished Tsukuru and a recently revived Burgermon happy holidays, and teleported over to CR. To his surprise, the break room was empty save for Poppy, all dressed up in her cute holiday-themed outfit and sadly picking at chocolate-dipped cookies on a plate from the table.

Poppy immediately perked up at seeing him, tossing the cookie to the side and bouncing over excitedly, "Kiriya! You made it! I thought no one was going to come, and we worked so hard on decorating!"

Kiriya welcomed her bear hug, thankful he didn't have organs anymore because they would assuredly burst under the strength of her arms. He patted her shoulder, and she set him down. "What do you mean no one came? The party was supposed to start an hour ago, right?"

She nodded emphatically, with a pout on her face, "Emu showed up and brought the Christmas cakes with the Director, and then Nico texted me she was here with Taiga, but they all either disappeared to get someone else or never showed!" Poppy sulked for a few moments before uncomfortable realization dawned on her face, "Well, actually, I guess the only person who showed up was Kuroto but..."

Kiriya held up a hand to stop her in her tracks, "No, it's okay. He was here by default, so it doesn't count."

That got a little smile out of her, and she sighed, "Well, I guess we can look for everyone. It seems like a downgrade for us, but let's treat it like a case for the Medical Detective Extraordinaires!" She spun around, costume changing into a classic Sherlock Holmes looking outfit, and Kiriya laughed.

"Sure, if that helps motivate you for it. Time to bring the detective combo back."

"Right! I'll check around here, and you can look around upstairs..." Poppy's cheerful demeanor quickly petered out, and she clamped her mouth shut. "Right... you're technically dead. Sorry."

Kiriya just shrugged, smiling reassuringly, "It's okay if I hung out with me every day I'd forget I'm supposed to be dead, too. It's kinda hard to get used to."

Poppy still looked upset by her mistake, but costume changed into her Asuna guise with a pink nurses uniform instead of her usual white. "I'll go check around upstairs! Let me know if you find anyone, and I'll do the same." Kiriya waved her off as she walked off to the elevator.

Once she was gone, Kiriya looked around the room and sighed. He didn't want to do this, but it would help to get more information than just, 'everyone's gone.' He walked over to the DoReMiFa cabinet, where Parad shockingly wasn't, and leaned against the doorframe.

"Hey there, 'God,'" He greeted, and Kuroto looked up from his laptop with an arrogant look.

"Well, isn't this a treat for me? It's so rare to see you willingly approach me. Have you finally given up on resisting my will?"

Kiriya forced every iota of his being to remain in place and didn't even bother hiding his annoyed expression. "I'm not gonna respond to that and get right to it. Did you see anything weird happening around? Since you're always here and all, I figure you'd have enough perspective on the situation."

Kuroto just leaned further back in his seat, relaxing with that infuriating, smug grin. "Maybe I did, but you're always one step ahead of me, no? So I assume you've already figured out what happened."

Maybe he did. Parad not being around was weird since he was almost always around Emu, Taiga, or here with Kuroto. Kuroto avoiding any reliable answers wasn't anything new, but if Parad wasn't with Emu or Taiga, it was easy to jump to the assumption he'd done something and Kuroto...

"Are you covering for Parad?" Kiriya deadpanned.

Kuroto staying silent should've been indication enough, but there was also the way his lips pulled to the side briefly, and his eyebrows twitched downward, giving Kiriya just enough to feel like he'd struck a nerve and was on the right path. "So, what'd he do?"

"I'm sure you can figure it out." Kuroto grinned again, "I'll give you a hint, though. You might've gotten more help with your decorating than you thought."

That honestly gave him nothing, but Kiriya threw the sheet over the cabinet again and started walking around the break room. Ignoring the outraged yelling from the cabinet, nothing seemed off— Oh wait. He walked over to the door slowly, staring at a glittery looking stick hanging next to the mistletoe he taped up there earlier in the week. It looked like a first graders art project, just a small, gnarled stick, about the size of his palm, smeared with green, red, and silver glitter glue. It had a length of string tied around it and stuck to the wall with duct tape, too. Kiriya didn't even have the first idea where Parad got all that stuff, but an outraged shout from the bottom of the stairwell caught his attention.

Leaving Parad's weird art project aside for now, Kiriya rushed down the steps, jumping the last five.

Well, he found Parad. Nico and Taiga, too. What they were doing was beyond him, though. Or rather, what they were doing was pretty obvious, _why_ they were was the question. And what they were doing was just, punching each other in an all-out brawl, while Taiga leaned up against the wall, watching with vague interest, his cheek very clearly bruising. Nico and Parad didn't even look up or seem to take note of Kiriya's sudden burst onto the scene, and he winced as he watched her chomp down on Parad's forearm to get out of the chokehold he was attempting. Kiriya caught Taiga's eye, however, and Taiga nodded casually at him in greeting, making his way over to the staircase landing.

"You wanna fill me in on what's going on?" Kiriya gestured to the epic struggle before them. Truly equivalent to the majesty of two siblings wrestling over who got to be player one on the Xbox.

Taiga shrugged. "Parad picked up some holiday traditions from the internet. Something called the 'Christmas Stick' or whatever. Basically, if two people get caught under it, they have to fight until someone gets knocked unconscious." He looked at Kiriya with all the world-weariness of a single father. "So he was waiting for us to come over and decked Nico the second they got near each other. He explained to me as they were fighting outside the entrance."

Kiriya nodded with exhausted understanding. "And the battle scar you've got right there is,"

"From when Nico elbowed me in the face as I was trying to force them to take it somewhere private at least."

"I'm amazed you even got them this far," Kiriya genuinely congratulated.

"Yeah same here," Taiga deadpanned, then shooed him off, "I got them handled here. Don't worry, they'll probably wear themselves out, and we can come up and hang out soon. Go enjoy yourself."

Kiriya almost protested that watching this match of the century would be infinitely more interesting than sitting around in silence in the breakroom. But then, he noticed the way Taiga was saying it with the exhaustion and slight embarrassment, like a parent with their kids throwing a tantrum in public, and Kiriya decided to save him the added humiliation of hanging out and watching for the results of the fight. With a little wave, he headed back upstairs, texting Asuna on the way that he'd figured it out. She was typing something, too.

When their messages sent, it turned out to be pretty much the same thing, but with way more pa-pi-pu-pe-po in hers. They found a "Christmas Stick" in the upstairs offices, and Graphite accidentally got caught with Emu under one and teleported away after decking Emu's halls. The only reason she knew what was happening is that Emu noticed Parad making them in his apartment the other day and asked what they were. She and Haima were tending to Emu. Also, Hiiro was there and had totally forgotten the time because he'd run late giving extra notes to his interns.

With a faint sense of pride and surprise on what Hiiro had been up to, Kiriya pocketed his phone. There was still the mystery of why Emu had glitter and string in his apartment, but he could solve that one pretty quickly by just asking when Emu was able to come down. He decided to head out and wait for them all to arrive instead of having only "God but With a Sheet Thrown Over Him" for company. Fortunately, Kuroto had gone quiet, but Kiriya still felt weird about being in a room alone with him after all they'd gone through.

Just as luck would have it when the doors slid open for Kiriya, Graphite was on the other side. Their eyes locked for a moment and Kiriya stepped in closer. This was sort of the moment he was planning for. It was totally not the right atmosphere, and honestly a little awkward given everything that was going on right now, but Kiriya stepped closer to him, intending to make his move. He hadn't even planned out what to say here. People always established that the mistletoe was there before kissing, right? But he just wanted to reach out and do it. Unfortunately, Graphite was faster, and his eyes flicked up to the ceiling, then back down to Kiriya, face grim.

In an instant, Kiriya felt fingers around his arm and himself hurtling through the air, suddenly coming into contact with the ground. When he finally got himself together enough to register what just happened to him, he realized Graphite just judo threw him, fortunately in the least painful way Kiriya has ever ended up in this position. But the doors suddenly sliding shut and bouncing into his sides made it the most humiliating way he's been on the ground like this. As he stared up blankly, the glittery stick glinted in his eyes, and he suddenly remembered. Graphite didn't just throw him aside out of a personal vendetta or to avoid kissing; it was because of the Christmas Stick. It had to be. Unless... Hopefully, Asuna didn't forget to mention she lectured Graphite on holiday traditions in her text because if she did and Graphite didn't react out of seeing the stick then—

"Kiriya?" a panicked voice brought him out of his daze, and suddenly hands were on him, helping him to his feet and ushering him back into the breakroom. It seemed like a blur, but everyone was seated around the meeting room table, with a very stern-looking Poppy and Haima standing at one end of it. She gave a lecture to everyone about the holidays being a time of togetherness and not fighting and how the Christmas Stick was the exact opposite of that concept. She turned a disappointed look to Graphite, saying he should've known better. But Haima took the time to meekly interrupt and explain that Saki's parents were strongly Buddhist and didn't even celebrate Christmas when she was alive, so Graphite couldn't have known, especially on top of his memories from Saki being hazy. Poppy relented and made Graphite and Parad apologize to everyone. And that was the awkward start to the CR Christmas party of 2018.

Though a few opportunities arose for a second try at his plan, Kiriya decided against pushing his luck and tried to enjoy the day. He noticed Nico and Emu pulling Graphite aside at one point, shit-eating grins on their faces and worried for a moment, but the conversation seemed to go smoothly, and they left him alone soon after, so Kiriya ignored them in favor of quickly moving to the couch to occupy it. There would be other chances to kiss Graphite as he planned, no doubt about it.


	2. Mistle-Foe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiriya realizes in an ironic twist of events, he's been betrayed by two of the closest people in his life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are at the concept that started this whole series. When I was still more active on Tumblr I saw a post like "Person A pretending to be casual, reading a book while waiting for Person B under the mistletoe, but when Person B comes through the doorway, they point out the book is upside down and Person A's so flustered they miss their opportunity" and it was tagged as Kiriya and Graphite. The entire concept of this chapter has strayed from that prompt but I wanted to give a mention to what sparked this whole chaotic mess.

The disastrous start to the CR holiday season was finally four days behind them and the decorations were still up in the meeting room. Even the hospital had cleaned up the minimal decorations they'd done, putting out the minimal New Year's decorations instead. The most it amounted to was a little kagami-mochi and kadomatsu on either end of the reception desk where they'd be out of the way of patients doing paperwork. One of the more outgoing receptionists brought a little golden dog statue to put near her station to signal the zodiac of the incoming Lunar New Year. Some doctors or their relatives brought in little decorations for their desks, too and that was about it. It made Poppy a little depressed since it wasn't as cheery or elaborate as the Christmas decorations, so out of laziness and the fact it made her happy, the live-in crew of CR decided to postpone taking them down until December 30th.

It made Kiriya happy, too. It gave him a few more opportunities to try and kiss Graphite. None of them went well, mostly because Kiriya kept aborting them, his doubts getting the best of him. The only times he’d seen Graphite since the party was only for a second before one of them suddenly remembered they had something to do and teleported out. Seemed like he was feeling awkward about the whole thing, too. But today, Kiriya finally felt enough confidence to try again for real. So, he grabbed a light novel someone left behind, probably Nico, to distract himself as he waited under the entrance to the meeting room for Graphite to hopefully come through. He wasn't really making sense of what this novel was about but the cover looked pretty gay, so he assumed it was Nico's. A quick scan of the back told him it was something about a girl's self-discovery journey through joining her high school music club so he assumed the lesbian feels were mostly subtext. He needed to remember to bother Nico about asking Poppy out because they were still no closer to ending the dance around each other they were doing. With a little luck, he'd be dating someone or free of romantic feelings to anyone before they ever got together at this rate.

Muffled humming came from the other side of the door and Kiriya looked up to see the doors slide open to reveal Poppy. "Oh! Kiriya! You're up early! What are you—" Her eyes flicked between the light novel to the decorations still hanging in the doorframe and a sly smile bloomed on her face. "Oh, waiting for a particular someone?"

"That obvious?" he grimaced.

Her smile turned sympathetic and she patted him on the shoulder. Her hand moved to his neck, tilting his head down so she could kiss him on the forehead. "It's tradition, right?" She grinned at his confused expression when she leaned back and dropped her hand.

He let out a little huff and smiled, leaning in to peck her cheek when she tapped it with her finger, smile playfully smug.

"Good luck, Kiriya!" she chirped and walked into the breakroom with a bit of a skip to her step.

Kiriya took down the mistletoe and slapped it above the doorframe in the hall, moving to lean on the wall there so Poppy could focus on whatever she had today and he could have some privacy with Graphite whenever that went down. The next person to come through was Parad, however, who just leaned down to press a kiss to the top of Kiriya's head and laughed as he stood back up to his full height and Kiriya glowered up at him because there was no way he could reach his face, and he refused to kiss anything lower than that. God knows with his luck he’d accidentally hit Parad’s nipples or something. If he even had those.

"What's wrong, Lazer? I thought the person who doesn't return the kiss gets poisoned or something. Is that what you want?" He taunted.

"That's not even close, just lean back down, you fucking telephone pole."

Parad smugly walked into the break room, "Well, it's bad luck or something! Jump higher next time!"

Kiriya flipped him off as he walked away and the door slid shut behind him. He must've been really rattled by that because he kept trying to read the lines but everything was jumbled and wrong all of a sudden. He didn't give the book enough credit, he was at a surprisingly, blatantly homoerotic part of the book between the main character and one of the supporting characters that had a very obvious crush on her and wanted to find out what happened between them. Seemed like his brain just didn't want to get with the program, but it was slowly starting to realize maybe something was wrong with the book physically instead of just his panicked state when Kuroto's face suddenly appeared in his peripheral with his creepy as fuck grin.

Kiriya jumped and took a few steps back, making Kuroto's smile grow even wider. "Oh, what do we have here?"

"Fuck off, God. Who even let you out?" Kiriya snarled back, he was honestly too frazzled to deal with him right now.

Kuroto's grin just grew and he leaned in closer. "So, you don't mind if I just follow up on tradition and go, then?"

Kiriya slapped him across the face with the novel, continuing to smack him away with the softcover until Kuroto had to retreat into CR. Poppy and Parad looked up, curious about the commotion. Kiriya caught Poppy's eye and started yelling as she scrambled for her bugvisor.

"Parad! What the fuck is he doing out?"

"Why are you blaming me?" Parad whined.

Poppy rolled over the table, landing in a power stance, Bugvisor held out menacingly at arm's length.

"Because you're literally the only one who'd let him out 'for the lols' or something like that!" She barked.

Kuroto froze for a moment at the sight of her and started scrambling back towards the exit, but Kiriya was there and ready, blocking his way with the light novel in hand. Before Kuroto could teleport away, Kiriya smacked him in the face while Poppy activated the device to vacuum Kuroto up.

The meeting room was silent, save for Kuroto's tiny, anguished screams, as everyone calmed down.

"For the record, Poppy, it's 'for the lulz.'" Parad piped up. Poppy shot him a venomous glare and he pouted. "It wasn't me! I swear!"

Trusting Poppy to have everything handled, Kiriya backed out towards the stairwell, figuring it was time to give up on this whole kissing Graphite thing. As luck would have it, he turned to come face to face with Graphite. He looked shocked, and Kiriya stumbled back a step to suddenly see him so close.

And there was that conflicted expression again. Like he'd rather be anywhere but here. Graphite's eyes darted up, and Kiriya's followed the motion to see the mistletoe he hung above the stairs and forgot to take down. Graphite looked much more distraught than before, and if Kiriya read him right, there was a little bit of regret? He didn't have much time to make sure before his arm was grabbed and his world span until he came into solid contact with the stairs. He landed on one of the steps in a mostly painless way, but the momentum from the throw sent him tumbling down the steps until he hit the bottom. Kiriya was barely processing what happened, but he thought he heard an outraged squeak from Poppy in the distance.

"Whoa, what the fuck happened to you?" a familiar voice said from above him. His vision stopped spinning enough for him to make out Nico.

He blinked slowly, trying to form words, finally getting out "Why are you here?"

She plucked the light novel out of his hands, "Getting this. Did you get to the spicy part, by the way? Where they're like "I don't mind pain," and "That's hot" while they're hiking? By the way, you know this thing was upside down, right? I mean, if it got that way when you fell, understandable."

"Ah." Suddenly his inability to read made sense. "I think I was getting there. She was talking about Kousaka's dress and her bra straps."

"Oh yeah, you were almost there," Nico reached out a hand and helped him up. "So, this is a weirder position than I usually find you in."

Kiriya made a face. "Is it really?"

"How often are you falling downstairs, trying to read my books upside down?"

"That's true. I didn't even know you had the patience to read." Nico smacked him hard with the novel and he flinched away, "Please don't, I feel like I've been through enough today."

Nico pouted exaggeratedly but let up physically. Verbally she kept coming after him, "Right, so how'd you end up like that?"

He grimaced, rubbing at his neck, "Graphite decided to give me a repeat performance of Christmas Eve."

She snorted, "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know, maybe Parad told him something weird about Christmas stuff again. He threw me downstairs after he noticed we were under the mistletoe together.

"Oh rip, that's hilarious though." Kiriya tried his best to look amused and brush it off, but it still kind of hurt. Apparently he didn't do a good enough cover up because Nico shot him a concerned look. "Okay, what's wrong? And don't give me 'nothing,'" she dropped her voice to impersonate a very sad version of him, then continued in her normal voice, "Or else I'll be forced to get it out of you. Is it because of your huge crush on Graphite?"

"Yeah, something like that." She shoved him for more and he nudged her back. "Basically, I've been trying to do like, a 'holiday kiss' with Graphite. Really lame, I know, but I just... I wanna see how he'd react and it's been getting harder for me to be upfront when I talk to him. Especially about my feelings?" His voice started going up in pitch as he felt more anxious about the whole situation. "I thought I told you this?"

Nico started to respond with a grin but her face slowly went blank. He was about to cover the gaps in his explanation when her face suddenly turned horrified.

"Fuck."

Her eyes were comically wide and she couldn't seem to close her mouth completely, jaw working open and closed in an attempt to form words. Saying "Fuck," again was what she finally decided on after a while of soundless floundering for speech. "Please don't be mad," she grimaced, "I might've helped Emu tell him mistletoe was for fighting under."

Kiriya leaned back from the force of her words hitting him. There was a lot to process right then and he'd just been through a lot. Fortunately, she continued explaining quickly.

"We thought it'd be a funny joke and somebody'd be able to correct him before it escalated too far. But basically we told him the Christmas Stick is fake and people were trying to replace the real use for mistletoe with lies about it. And that, if you met under the mistletoe you had to fight and win as fast as possible."

He stared at her for a while, unmoving and unblinking, mouth hanging slightly open as he tried to process what she'd done. Kiriya knew she wasn't intentionally trying to sabotage him, but the realization of two of the closest people in his life accidentally betraying him hit like a train and he was still reeling. He thought back to every time he'd seen Nico since the last relationship gossip session he could remember to the Christmas party and realized he was coming up distressingly blank on any time he told her of his plan.

"It's okay," he finally sighed, his shock passing and his body slumping forward. It really wasn't worth being mad about, Nico and Emu couldn't have known since he hadn't said anything, Graphite was an easy target for Western holiday misinformation, and he could get another chance on New Year's.

"You're really not mad?" Nico winced.

"Nah, or my emotions just haven't caught up to the situation. Either way, I'm not mad." She still looked skeptical. "Seriously, it's okay. You couldn't have known and I should just ask him out."

Where he expected ridicule, Nico exhaled sharply and it nearly turned into a whistle. "It's hard, isn't it?" she offered him an encouraging half-grin. He blinked surprisedly and she crossed her arms, pouting to hide a smile. "Look, we're fucking hopeless. I've been dancing around Poppy for what? A year and a half now? I'm in no place to be giving you grief over asking Graphite out, as much as I want to."

She nudged him gently this time, "It's scary, but if we want anything to change, we gotta go for it, right? So, I'll make you a promise right here," She held out her pinky, "We both ask our crushes out New Year's Eve. And if it goes bad, we can go to a river or something and scream out over the water, cry together, eat garbage food, whatever, okay?"

"I thought you were gonna stop at just 'eat garbage' and I honestly wouldn't have been surprised."

"We can do that too, if you want. So, we got a deal?"

Kiriya looked down, chuckling at himself for a moment and considering what Nico was offering. Solidarity in a time like this was something he needed more than he realized. It was still difficult for him to notice when he needed support, much less ask, but at least he was getting better at recognizing it was a problem. He wrapped his pinky around hers and they shook hands firmly.

Their fingers unwound from each other and Nico looked at him with newfound confidence, she was practically glowing. "We can do this," she said softly.

Kiriya found himself grinning and laughed a little. "We got this." Nico's enthusiasm for their plan was contagious.

They caught up for a while after that, but eventually, Nico had to run back to Taiga's hospital, her break almost over. She whined about wishing she could teleport, but Kiriya just ruffled her hair and sprinted with her to the elevator to see her off.


	3. With a Bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiriya and Graphite have a little heart to heart over New Year's traditions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never played fireworks I vaguely know how they work, I'm mostly going off that one scene in Fellowship of the Ring and a couple of firework safety tutorials I've seen.

Kiriya sat by himself on the railing overlooking the skate park, watching the rest of CR set off fireworks below. Earlier in the night, Nico was dead set on confessing to Poppy before Kiriya could get to Graphite. But she kept turning around every time she got within a meter of her and eventually fell back on him for help. Kiriya had to keep grabbing Nico by the shoulders and spinning her back towards the other bugster, encouraging her and reminding her why she was doing this until she finally psyched herself up enough to charge in, literally. She gave Kiriya the most painful low-five he'd ever experienced in his life and unlife, then sprinted over to Poppy, almost barreling into her before taking her hands and leading her away.

Nico was frozen for a while once she got them alone, staring up at Poppy with her mouth working soundlessly and stars in her eyes. Kiriya was tempted to intervene but kept up his faith in her, she'd already gotten this far. After a few false starts where Poppy patted Nico's shoulder confusedly but encouragingly, she finally got to talking. It was rocky, but it was happening, so Kiriya was satisfied they were on the right track. He saw Emu approaching them with a curious expression and dashed to the box of sparklers. He lit one and shoved it down Taiga's shirt to create a distraction and give the girls their privacy. Emu and Taiga had been getting closer lately through Parad practically pushing them together and Kiriya let out a sigh of relief that he read them right. The second Taiga started cursing him out Emu's head whipped around and he was dashing over to help. Kiriya was impressed he only stumbled once on his way over. The laws of attraction worked wonders or Emu was a big faker in terms of his clumsiness. Either way, the girls only momentarily looked over at the commotion before shuffling a few steps away and picking up where they left off.

When Nico and Poppy finally returned, it was hand in hand, and Kiriya barely saw them separate the whole night. Satisfied she held up her end of the deal, Nico started doing the same to Kiriya, nudging him towards Graphite every chance she got. Unfortunately, getting Graphite alone tonight would be harder than any other time since he was in surprisingly high demand. He showed off some fire breathing tricks utilizing both mouths and everyone was impressed, either asking him to show off more or help light some of the more dangerous fireworks from a distance. Eventually, Kiriya just teleported away, muttering something about needing space to Nico, and that's how he got here. Alone and half-watching his friends.

At a distance like this, the celebrations felt like how they used to when he was alive. New Year's was always quiet for him, especially with Jungo. When he was so removed from the closeness and sound and sensation of others, he could almost picture himself back in Jungo's apartment, curled up on the couch with him and—

"Hey,"

The soft sound jostled him from his thoughts and he nearly fell off the railing. A taloned hand shot out for him but he was able to steady himself before it grabbed him. It hovered over the back of his neck anyways, ready to grab him at any second if he started slipping again, but he didn't pay it much mind. His world narrowed down to the feeling of something simulating a heart beating wildly in his chest, pulse filling his ears and consuming his sense of touch as his vision blurred. He'd been so caught up in thoughts he'd forgotten why he'd come up in the first place, but it was all crashing back now that Graphite was here.

He was feeling dejected over not being able to hold his end of the promise with Nico and needed to get away before his 'everything's fine' facade started cracking. Once he was perched on the railing, he thought it would be a good vantage point to watch for an opportunity to steal Graphite away. But he'd apparently gotten so caught up in reminiscing he let Graphite sneak up on him. Not even just sneak up, but sit down on the railing right next to him before saying anything and he didn't even notice. Fuck, he was getting bad at this. Kiriya knew he should think of growing less wary of his surroundings 24/7 as a good thing, but it felt wrong after so many years of never letting his guard down.

Graphite stared at him worriedly and Kiriya laughed, "I'm fine. You just startled me."

"You seem like the party type, so I was confused when I saw you up here by yourself. Also, Nico said to go check on you when I asked." He continued to pin Kiriya down with a slightly concerned look and the singular voice from his mouth caught Kiriya off guard until he finally noticed Graphite's head was retracted into its more humanoid form.

Kiriya wasn't sure if he wanted to thank Nico or shake her screaming "Why?" right then, and just opted for a fake smile. This had been his goal all night, but he was so emotionally compromised right now he was in the least favorable position to deal with telling Graphite he liked him. He wanted to worm his way out of this interaction and had a few lies about why he was up here ready to go. But he realized it might be the best shot he had all night and opted for something mostly truth. "I usually am, but New Year's was always quieter for me. Guess I got a little overwhelmed." He turned away from Graphite to their friends again, the dragon's gaze a little too intense for him right now.

"What would you do?" Graphite asked, shoulders finally relaxing, "I'd probably be in the crowds trying to make it to a shrine right now if it weren't for y'know... Zero Day, and all that."

Kiriya let out a little laugh "You’d look good in a kimono. I can almost picture it.” Graphite snorted. “But you never celebrated at Genm?”

“I was never interested in human things at first. Eventually, Parad convinced me to go to the roof and watch fireworks with him.” He shrugged a shoulder. “It made some part of me really happy, but the rest of me didn’t care. Or didn’t want to care, if we’re being really honest. Though I’m sure you’d rather not.”

Kiriya laughed, “That’s for sure.” And a comfortable silence enveloped them for a while. But Graphite’s eyes turned expectant on him and Kiriya gave him a half-smile then turned back to watch the party, “I used to go out to the river with my family and we'd watch fireworks displays out there, sometimes we’d light up sparklers and my parents would let me run around with them. But once I was like, fifteen? We stayed in and made a nice dinner together and just hung out. Plus, one of my moms is hardcore into Kōhaku so it got more exciting to watch her reactions than going out and dealing with the crowds. She gets really animated if she's passionate about something."

"She sounds fun."

"Yeah, I think she would've liked you." Kiriya finally met Graphite's eyes, giving him a little grin.

Graphite chuckled, "Would you go back to visit them after you started working at Seito?"

Kiriya let his face fall at that point, smile turning sad. "No, not for a while. I'd usually visit them outside of the holidays. I had other priorities here anyway. He was, uh... I... I started going back after Zero Day..."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't wanna."

Kiriya's first instinct was to take the out he was being given and steer the conversation somewhere else. But he looked back at his time with Graphite and thought better of it. A whole year together and Graphite had been the one to always take risks and trust Kiriya, taking him at his word, though he clearly knew better. Sure, Kiriya had opened up a little and treated the trust he'd been given with care, but he hadn't given anything back like how Graphite spilled his heart out. He thought back to those times where he'd lay himself out for Kiriya to look and touch, physically and metaphorically. Letting him poke and prod at his unfamiliar physiology, but also at his secrets and his patience.

All this time, Kiriya had been looking for a way to let Graphite into his life without taking any risk of opening himself up. If he really wanted anything out of this relationship, maybe it was time for him to take a leap of faith, too.

Breathing deep, Kiriya closed his eyes and took a moment, thinking about how he wanted to go about this. He felt Graphite's eyes on him, but it wasn't as intense as usual. This was different, like he was trying to give Kiriya space but wanted to keep watching him for his reactions. It was kinda cute and picked up his spirits a little, gave him enough strength to open his eyes and give Graphite a sad but genuine little smile.

"Remember how I said me turning into a bike is really fucked up?"

Graphite nodded slightly, "You never got to finish that one."

Kiriya chuckled. "Yeah. I actually wasn't planning on finishing it. At least properly, had this elaborate backstory about me being a stunt biker and crashing." Graphite made an amused hum and Kiriya bit his lip, suppressing a grin so he could keep the atmosphere. "But now, I think I'm ready to tell you why it's really fucked up." He swallowed a few times before continuing. "You know how almost all of us got pulled into the bugster crisis because someone got infected or are the virus?" Graphite nodded, "My... He got... He was in a motorcycle accident before the virus could kill him. Just, ran out into the street, the rider wasn't paying too much attention until they'd already gone over him." He stumbled over his words, hating how his voice was trembling.

"When we first started hanging out, we'd spend New Year's at his place. His family didn't like him for a lot of reasons, so he didn't have anyone besides his coworkers. Me and Nisshi saw him struggling with getting comfortable and yeah, our job is one of the less welcoming ones, but he just seemed stressed all the time and we kinda shoved ourselves into his space, trying to be friends, but he invited us over that first year. And he was..." Kiriya laughed out of reflex to cover up a sob, averting his gaze to the sky and grimacing hard. He breathed heavily through gritted teeth. After he felt calm enough, he sniffled and looked back down, staring at his knees as he smiled, "I loved him _so_ much. When we started dating, New Year’s would just be the two of us. He was jumpy and he'd just, cling to me whenever a firework was too loud. It was nice, feeling like I could protect him, holding him like that. So when I lost him..."

They both went quiet then, Graphite watching him carefully, letting him have his space, and Kiriya still breathing hard to get through this. Pops of fireworks and shouts from below filled the silence, but the somber mood hung heavily between them and Kiriya itched to get this off his chest and break it.

"It was my fault he was in the accident. He got infected, and we'd never seen anything like it, so I did some digging. I found files about Taiga and how he got fired and some vague references to you. So I told him, no sugarcoating, when I could've told him any other way. Or just said nothing and not stressed him out like that. I knew he could get stuck in his head and catastrophize about it, but I was tired from all the sneaking around and digging places I shouldn’t have. So when I told him, he bolted. And I didn't go after him..." Kiriya tried to form his next words but they caught in his throat, lower lip trembling. Graphite inched his talon forward, nudging Kiriya's hand in a reassuring gesture and his lips twitched up in a thankful way. "There's hundreds of different ways I could've handled it that might've let him live in the end but... It's not what I did and I can't do anything about it now. Working on the vaccines and bringing people back helps in some ways. Feels like I'm finally doing something to make it up to him."

Their eyes met from sideglances and Graphite tried to look encouraging. "You're doing good. Wherever he ended up, I'm sure he'd be proud."

Tears threatened to spill over and Graphite quickly saved him, changing the topic to Kiriya's parents and Kōhaku. They kept talking about things, whatever they could think of to help keep Kiriya from breaking down fully. As much as he liked him, full-on crying in front of Graphite was too much for now, and Kiriya was thankful he somehow knew when to stop them when Kiriya would've kept going and turned himself into a regretful mess. As they stayed up there, just chatting, Kiriya would sometimes see one of their friends starting to approach the wall, maybe to call one of them down, but Nico and Poppy would suddenly cause a ruckus, bringing attention back to the party. Kiriya could practically hear Nico telling him he owed her big time and he bit down on a laugh. Graphite asked him what was so funny and Kiriya tried dodging the question, eventually promising to tell him all about it tomorrow.

They shifted closer to each other as they chatted, and Graphite bumped Kiriya's shoulder with his own as a comfortable silence started falling over them.

"I've been studying up on western holiday traditions outside of what Saki knew so I don't just assume what everyone's telling me is true anymore." Graphite said, staring out at the rest of CR.

Kiriya smiled lightly, "And what did you find out?"

"Lots of things. Humans go around, get drunk off their asses, and watch concerts or whatever. Basically, make a lot of noise and eat a lot. Sounds like a typical way for humans to celebrate."

"Yeah, I guess we're not too creative in that department, huh?" Kiriya chuckled.

"There is one I find the slightest bit interesting though."

Before Kiriya could ask, Graphite's bones crackled as they shifted around to let his mouths open and Kiriya swallowed hard, doing his best to suppress any reactions to the rows and rows of fangs suddenly in his face. The jaws clamped shut into a wicked grin and Graphite tilted his head interestedly. The top mouth opened and only his voice came out, "That you should kiss someone on New Year's."

Heat rushed to Kiriya's face and his chest felt tight. He tried to laugh off the sudden rush of emotions and smile casually, "Why's that one interesting?"

"Sounds more like a test of courage with how closed off humans are about intimacy. Though I guess if you're as sloshed on New Year's as everyone supposedly is then it's not that big of a deal."

Kiriya shrugged, trying to stay calm, "What, you wanna go around kissing people to see if they're brave enough?"

"Yeah, just like this, too." Graphite placed a hand on his chest. "I know it'd be easy to get people while looking like a human, but I wanna see if they're brave enough to try with _me."_ Kiriya's breath hitched and Graphite leaned in. "Wanna be my test subject for a change?"

Was Graphite... flirting with him? Was the impossibility of him being even remotely interested honestly becoming a reality? Had he been this whole time? This changed so much and Kiriya was so blown away that he didn't even want to respond, just started leaning in, shifting his hand forward so it covered Graphite's gripping the railing. Graphite's tongue slid out from between his fangs and he tilted his head a bit more. It flicked over Kiriya's lips softly and he gasped, lips parting to press against knife-sharp teeth and he closed his eyes. Kiriya's heartbeat was in his ears, drowning out everything else, but he could've sworn he heard an "oh fuck!" in the distance. Just as Graphite's tongue started venturing into Kiriya's mouth, there was a flash of golden light and Kiriya felt heat burst over his skin, a few places stinging where it felt like something hit him. Graphite flinched at whatever happened and his fangs pierced Kiriya's lower lip, who had to hold off a shudder from the sudden mix of pain and adrenaline.

The smell of smoke hit Kiriya before his eyes snapped open to see clouds of it obscuring his vision, Graphite barely visible as sparks from little spinning fireworks hit them both as they quickly fell to the ground.

Kiriya turned to look at the CR crew, all standing in shock, staring back up at the two of them. From what he could make out through the smoke, Taiga and Hiiro had a lighting stick and a pole that used to be attached to one of the bigger fireworks between them. He didn't even know Taiga's eyes could get that big with how much he was squinting all the time, dang. There was a low rumble next to him and in a second Graphite was leaping from the railing and down into the park, his face snapped back into place as he pulled out his glaive. Taiga and Hiiro dropped everything to start running and the rest of CR rushed to hold Graphite back.

Kiriya watched, just taking in the moment before sliding off the railing and onto the ground behind him, lying down on his back and staring into the night sky. He chuckled a little and blew out a nervous breath. Well, the moment had been ruined, but at least he knew what Graphite's feelings towards him were now. Or at least, he had a better idea. He brought up an arm to cover his eyes against the tears threatening to leak out. Jungo was probably laughing at him from wherever he was. Good-naturedly, of course. He was too soft to ever be meanspirited about something like this, but he would get amused at Kiriya getting so wrapped up in his own thoughts he'd completely miss a key detail of what was going on. They really had that in common. He still missed him, but it felt a lot less painful thinking about him lately.

He felt like a huge idiot, but at least knew what he had to do tomorrow.


	4. Starting the Year Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More pining— jk they finally kiss and don't get interrupted.

After midnight hit and 2019 began, the CR party tiredly cleaned up and went their separate ways. Kiriya was staying at Genm to make more room for the others staying at CR. Progress on making it more habitable was going well, so he was comfortable at least. When he got back, he found an empty bed in one of the half-renovated meeting rooms, throwing himself onto it. As exhausted as he was, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually (if that was even possible anymore), he couldn't find it in himself to fall asleep. He just rolled onto his back, staring up into the darkness of the room and kept replaying the events of the night, dissecting every moment he spent with Graphite. And the more he looked, the more objectively it looked like Graphite was into him rather than his theory that he was just projecting affection back at himself through Graphite. That realization made him think back on other times they'd spent together, finding things that he tried to ignore or pass off as something else that might be what he hoped they were after all. It made him come to the terrifying conclusion that Graphite was genuinely, actually into him and he had just been ignoring it in favor of his own guilt and self-deprecation. So nothing too new, but also he really needed to look at that. He probably wouldn't fix it, but it was just something to start examining for later.

When morning finally came, announced by his alarm blaring on his phone, he'd only closed his eyes to blink the whole night and was feeling a mix of deep-set exhaustion and manic energy from a mix of needing more sleep and feeling anxious about what he was planning on doing today. He had to start this year off right, and to do that, he needed to go to CR. Despite his body's protests, he got to his feet, slapping his face a little to wake himself up more. After doing some quick stretches, he teleported over to CR. Usually, he'd take his time, grab a breakfast of coffee and watch the last few minutes of sunrise on the Genm roof. But today he wanted to catch Graphite alone before everyone else started coming in.

Kiriya circuited CR and all the other places they frequented and skirted around getting seen in, but the dragon bugster was nowhere to be found. When he returned to CR to do another quick scan, he ran into Poppy. She didn't even say anything, just gave him a knowing smirk and pointed upwards. He thanked her quickly and teleported away. Of course. If Graphite would be anywhere it'd be—

He landed on the roof, looking around a little frantically until his eyes landed on Graphite, leaning up against the roof access in his human form with a familiar light novel in his hands. Kiriya could've laughed but just made his way over instead. Graphite didn't look up from the book, but he spared Kiriya a side-eye when he sat next to the dragon.

"Did you get to the surprisingly horny part?"

Graphite snorted, "Where she's talking about Kousaka's bra straps?"

"I was thinking of the part where her sandals are chafing her ankles."

"Oh, the 'I don't mind pain' part?"

"Yeah, that one."

Graphite finally turned his head to look at Kiriya and smirked, "Past it, I'm at the really mushy part where they're playing the duet at the hike lookout."

"Aw," Kiriya chuckled, "Yeah that's really cute."

Kiriya leaned closer, bumping his shoulder against Graphite's and the dragon leaned in, too. They paused there for a while, just feeling each other out, making sure the moment was right. Their lips were barely touching when Graphite started to whisper something but Kiriya dove in, mashing their faces together inelegantly. Graphite froze for a moment but started kissing back fiercely before Kiriya could even doubt he was making the wrong move. Their mouths met again and again, feeling out a rhythm with each other until they were really kissing instead of biting down on each other's lips or missing every time.

Graphite's sharp fangs still caught on Kiriya's lips once in a while, but it sent a pleasant shiver through him rather than making him flinch like the night before or the many other times he would've drawn blood now if Kiriya was still human. Kiriya's hand found its way into Graphite's hair and tugged gently. A soft, rolling trill came from deep in Graphite's chest as he leaned into the contact. Kiriya pressed his grin into Graphite's lips and buried his fingers deeper into the dragon's hair, alternating between massaging his scalp and softly pulling at his hair. Graphite's closer hand found its way to Kiriya's waist and hooked around it tight, drawing him closer. Neither had to break for air so they stayed pressed together for a long time, saying all the things they were too afraid to voice.

When they finally broke apart, it was wet and messy and Kiriya felt spit dripping from the corners of his mouth, smeared across his cheeks and chin. Graphite looked about as tousled as he felt. Kiriya found himself chortling when he saw Graphite had sort of an awestruck glaze to his eyes. Like he couldn’t believe what just happened. The sound snapped Graphite to attention and he grinned, happy and genuine with a wicked edge that promised him all sorts of things later.

”I thought this would never happen.” Graphite whispered breathily.

”Honestly? Same here. I thought you were into Hiiro and Taiga.”

Graphite smiled self-deprecatingly. ”I get why you thought that.”

Kiriya's hand trailed down the back of Graphite's head, coming to rest around the back of his neck, "Do you regret telling me that?"

"You want the honest answer?" Graphite leaned back to look him in the eye properly.

Kiriya suppressed a chuckle, "Y'know? I'm starting to re-evaluate my stance on honesty to appreciating it more."

Graphite smiled reluctantly at him, "I regretted it so much. I know you saw me talking with Poppy sometimes, and I was just worrying about it to her," He sighed, smile turning more into a grimace as he looked down. "She helped a lot though. Made me feel a lot better about it by helping me realize it was probably something we needed to talk about. Something we might need to talk about depending on how the rest of this conversation goes." He looked back up, eyebrows raising questioningly. "I've done some other... Mistakes. Trying to kiss you right after you opened up about your dead boyfriend wasn't the best time..."

Kiriya finally let out the laugh he was holding back, it was sharp, and Graphite twitched the slightest bit in surprise. "It really wasn't the best, but I think I needed it. It's still... I'm not entirely over him and you've got your own hang-ups we're not gonna get over immediately. I think we have a lot we need to talk about if we're gonna make this work but I think we can. And I'm finally in a place where I can start. Jungo was my reason for..." He paused to find the words but tears started to well up instead. He just blinked them away and covered it with a laugh, "Wow, just... a lot of things, but being with CR has given me a lot of other reasons to stick around. And I'm starting to feel comfortable with myself and what I wanna do as reasons to get up and keep going every day."

They nodded at each other, struggling to find some kind of follow up to that. Waffling between opening up more or encouraging the other to, and eventually, the silence grew awkward and tense. They grimaced at each other, expressions slowly changing to shared smirks when they realized the struggle was mutual.

"We're fucking messes." Graphite laughed.

"Yeah talking this stuff out is harder than I thought." Kiriya reached out for Graphite's free hand with his own, taking it. "You wanna just get back to the kissing part and we can sit down and figure out something later? I feel like this might take another year with how good we are at talking about feelings."

Graphite gently tapped their foreheads together. "Sounds good to me. There'll always be time to practice talking."

Kiriya closed his eyes, genuinely grinning. He tilted his face up to get back to kissing Graphite, but a familiar cracking and popping sound made his pulse race in anticipation. He wasn't sure if it'd be rude to keep his eyes closed or if he'd seem uncomfortable if he opened them, but Graphite's long tongues were gently running across his bottom lip soon enough, making him melt into the talons holding him and forgetting any worries. He opened up his mouth and let the tongues in, pressing closer to Graphite's fangs to let him explore as deep as he wanted to, pushing back at Graphite playfully with his own tongue when he could. It was unlike any kiss he'd ever had before, but he was into it. Graphite was still tentative and clumsy in some places, but if he got more practice he'd be able to ruin human kisses for Kiriya forever and his heart swelled at the idea of a future where it happened. That he could choose a life with him.

He knew that it would be awkward with Graphite. They were bound to fuck up, say the wrong things, fight, just like any couple. Especially with how messed up things were in regards to previous relationships and the still healing hurt from everything they'd been through. And as much as Kiriya dreaded it, he also looked forward to it. He wanted to learn how to be in a relationship again and stumble through it with Graphite. And Graphite accepting and seemingly loving him back just as much was a welcome feeling. A warm rush through his whole body that comforted him in a way he hadn't felt in a long time. They'd do their best to make this work, and if it fell apart, at least they tried, and that was the thought going through Kiriya's head when one of Graphite's tongues got overeager and slammed into the back of Kiriya's throat. He gagged, forcing them apart with surprised laughter and coughing.

It was right then, Kiriya decided he couldn't think of a better way to start the year. Especially when Graphite leaned in and gently started kissing him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm horrified at myself that I wrote something that's basically 24 chapters and it took me that long to get to the actual big kiss. Hopefully I can do some quicker burn things in the future because I'd sure love that!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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